Top Menu

Tag Archives | ecologist

On meeting Nigel Brown

I first met Nigel Brown on a Nature Writing residential week at Ty Newydd. He and poet Katrina Porteous were our tutors – and it was the most extraordinary week of my life. Nigel is the most wonderful walking-encyclopedia and gentle enthusiastic communicator. He can seemingly answer any question you throw at him, when you […]

Continue Reading 0

Writing on Frogs

Fantastic Frogs It’s late February and all over the Marches anurans awake from weeks of torpor. Better known as frogs their body clocks have marked the days past the winter solstice. Slotted into the earth their bodies are at one with nature, their cold moist skin sensitive to every perturbation of temperature and humidity, logging […]

Continue Reading 0

Podcast on Frogs

Welcome! Here is a podcast on the Common Frog, with Nigel Brown :   Nigel Brown tells us what frogs eat, what eats them, their ability to thrive in both air and water, and much more – we hope you enjoy it [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/227664659″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] and click here to find more podcasts, writing, […]

Continue Reading 2

Writing on Grey Squirrels

by John Handley, November 2015 We’ve just been scolded by an indignant squirrel. It’s October and the days are noticeably shorter and my daily amble with Sidbury, a loping Labrador cross Collie, is broken by his confusion as the rabbit he thought he was chasing dashes up the trunk of an oak tree, along a […]

Continue Reading 0

Podcast on Grey Squirrels

Welcome! Here is a podcast on Grey Squirrels: [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/231662448″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] John Handley tells us some facts about the grey squirrel for the Maligned Species project. Here – to inspire you to observe, read about, and write poems about grey squirrels and other maligned species of the UK. Do you know […]

Continue Reading 0

On meeting Matthew Oates

Despite a drizzly overcast day, I am beaming, when Matthew Oates arrives for this podcast recording in Cheltenham, immediately after he has been at an event at Cheltenham Literature Festival 2015, based on his book “In Pursuit of Butterflies”. Matthew has been extraordinarily kind to me over the past 5 years, after he heard that […]

Continue Reading 0

Writing on Stinging Nettles

Tall Nettles Matthew Oates, autumn 2015 – on Stinging Nettles, with a poem from Edward Thomas Be Nice to Nettles Week came and went, having stung no one into action. A highly successful ruderal dicotyledonous plant forming monospecific stands by rhizome spread… The stinging nettle is, after all, the most abundant broad-leaved plant in the […]

Continue Reading 0

Podcast on Stinging Nettles

Welcome! Here is a podcast on Stinging Nettles: Matthew Oates tells us in what way Stinging Nettles and Man are similar, as well as many fascinating facts about how their stings actually work, and what benefits from their presence – we hope you enjoy it [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/229563662″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]   and click here to […]

Continue Reading 0

On meeting Brett Westwood

Visiting naturalist Brett Westwood, and walking with him round the block, in Stourbridge, West Midlands I had met Brett once before – when he had very kindly travelled up to Morville in Shropshire to listen to poetry and see some art in Morville Church, hosted by Katherine Swift, author of The Morville Hours: at the […]

Continue Reading 0

Writing on Spiders, from Brett Westwood

7/10/2015 DIADEMS AND DEW: GARDEN SPIDERS After a week of high pressure, this morning the garden is drenched in October rain and the full extent of the takeover is there to see, picked out in glistening droplets. Every bush is festooned with the sagging geometry of webs, stretched out of shape by their dewy burden, […]

Continue Reading 0